Reflections

On Education

Steve Denning, a Forbes columnist, recently wrote “The Single Best Idea for Reforming K-12 Education.” In it, he says: “… the single most important idea for reform in K-12 education concerns a change in goal. The goal needs to shift from one of making a system that teaches children a curriculum more efficiently to one of making the system more effective by inspiring lifelong learning in students, so that they are able to have full and productive lives in a rapidly shifting economy.”

The Horizon Project has been producing Horizon Reports for some years. Each report “describes [an] effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education.”Each covers six areas of impending change, their likely effects, and time horizons for adoption. Originally it was targeted at education through college. In recent years, they have produced reports targeted at K-12 education, museums, and regional editions. The 2009 Horizon Report (the first I added to this site) covers mobiles, cloud computing, geo-everything, the personal web, semantic-aware applications, and smart objects. The PDFs for 2011 include the regular report and one targeted for K-12 educators. Highly recommended. Similar information is expressed in “10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About – 2011 Update.”

Smithsonian has an interesting article about the success of Finland’s schools and how they got to be that way. “There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians.” Will Richardson had an interesting piece on this titled “We Prepare Children to Learn How to Learn.”

Second, students need to be able to use the technology. … [T]here is such a thing as a “digital divide.” … [T]he only way for some school systems to afford computer labs is if computers are donated. … [Donated computers may] not be able to support the latest technology. … [C]omputers ideally should be relatively up to date and able to provide students with not only fundamental skills but also the chance to learn intermediate and advanced skills as the “cool new thing” rolls out of the factory.

Third, technology must be relevant and interactive to the coursework. Students need a practical use for technology. … Students need to communicate quickly with each other, but in a centralized manner. …

Fourth, technology must be used for a practical purpose [e.g.,] a final project, where creativity and uniqueness is required and rewarded. … Using technology for some practical purpose … must be the clear objective.